Cases filed against Udham Singh

Administrative/Biographical history : Shaheed Udham Singh (1899-1940). On 13 March 1940 at 4.30 p.m. in the Caxton Hall, London, where a meeting of the East India Association was being held in conjunction with the Royal Central Asian Society, Udham Singh fired five to six shots from his pistol at Sir Michael O'Dwyer, who was governor of the Punjab when the Amritsar Massacre had taken place, to avenge the massacre. On 1 April 1940, Udham Singh was formally charged with the murder of Sir Michael O'Dwyer. On 4 June 1940, he was committed to trial, at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, before Justice Atkinson, who sentenced him to death. An appeal was filed on his behalf which was dismissed on 15 July 1940. On 31 July 1940, Udham Singh was hanged in Pentonville Prison in London.

The Amritsar Massacre (or 'Jallianwallah Bagh Massacre'), is the name given to the massacre of demonstrators supporting Indian independence by soldiers of the British Empire on 13 April 1919, in the northern Indian city of Amritsar. The event was precipitated by the extension of emergency powers assumed by the government of British India during World War I to combat subversion; Mohandas Gandhi called on all India to oppose this action.

The Amritsar massacre inflamed Indian public opinion and turned the entire Indian population against British imperialism as had no other event; it laid the foundation for a truly powerful anti-colonial and anti-imperialist movement which was not to stop until the expulsion of British imperialism from India. The incident of 13 April, 1919 inspired countless Indian revolutionaries to take up the struggle against British imperialism. One of the revolutionaries was Udham Singh.

Five files relating to the case of Udham Singh were subject to a British Government ban until the year 2040. However, with relentless campaigning by the Shaheed Udham Singh Welfare Trust and the IWA(GB), the files were released in 1996 and 1997. Bharat Gaurav Award:Comrade Avtar Singh Jouhl, General Secretary of the IWA(GB), played the leading role in securing, from the Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the release of the five files on Udham Singh. In recognition of his role in obtaining these files, in publishing two books and in assisting in the film production of Shaheed Udham Singh, the `Bharat Gaurav Award' (Pride of India) was presented to him by H.E. The High Commissioner of India, Lalit Mann Singh, in London on 25 June 1999.(Sources: `Challenge to Imperial Hegemony - the life story of Udham Singh' written by Navtej Singh, in collaboration with the Shaheed Welfare Trust (Birmingham) and the IWA (GB). Udham Singh Lalkar is the bi-monthly anti-imperialist newspaper of communists of Indian origin in the UK.

Scope and content : Contained within Subseries within MEPO 3: MURDER, MANSLAUGHTER, ETC. are records relating to Udham Singh and the assassination of of Sir Michael Francis O'Dwyer.These include: MEPO 3/1743 Murder of Sir Michael Francis O'Dwyer by Udham Singh at Caxton Hall, Westminster, on 13 March, 1940.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information :

Accruals :

System of arrangement : 5 files relating to Udham Singh have been located within the PROCAT records:

CRIM 1/1177
HO 144/21444
HO 144/21445
MEPO 3/1743
PCOM 9/872

Reference has been made in the administrative history to 5 files under British Government ban until 2040, in HO and FCO series, 2 references have been noted in the HO series, no references to Udham Singh have been found in the FCO series.

CRIM 1/1177 Defendant: Singh, Udham Charge: Murder Session: 1940 Apr 23
HO 144/21444 criminal cases: Singh, Udham convicted at CCC, 5 June 1940 for murder and sentenced to death 1940
HO 144/21445 CriminalCases: Singh, Udham. Convicted at CCC on 5 June 1940 for murder and sentenced to death 1940
PCOM 9/872 Singh Udham: convicted at CCC 5 June of murder and sentenced to death 1940.